Common Misperceptions
by Erica Justice
Summary: Eliot and Parker try out being roommates after Parker tails Eliot to his house. Hijinks ensue. Misunderstandings abound. *finally updated*
1. Chapter 1

AN: So this is my first attempt at fan fiction. I wasn't going to post it yet, but my enabler/beta AllyGator1990 talked me into it. So here it is.

Also, I'm not profiting from this story or Leverage in any way other than the stories in my head.

* * *

He's being followed. Hunted. It takes effort for him keep his shoulders from tensing up and his stride even. After a while of trying to ditch his follower, he finally catches a glimpse of his pursuer. He has to fight the urge to grin. He knows his pursuer. He resists the need to glance over his shoulder. He knows what he'll see if he does. Nothing. The Hunter is one of the best for a reason.

He continues on as if nothing is amiss. He goes to the farmer's market to pick up a few things. While there, he stops to chat with the vendors. He's almost convinced he has lost the interest of The Hunter. Then, out of the corner of his eye, he catches a reflection of The Hunter. Looks like he won't be heading home any time soon. He will have to lose The Hunter first. The Hunter has been trying to follow him home every day for the past two weeks. He doesn't know why The Hunter has been tailing him. He decides the best way to end this is to turn the tables on The Hunter.

He melts into the swell of people on the sidewalk. For once, his stature is an advantage instead of a hindrance. When it becomes obvious The Hunter is still keeping up with him, he sets his plan into motion. He steps into an alleyway and into the shadows. In doing so, he has changed the game. The Hunter is now the hunted.

Before long, The Hunter treads carefully into the alley, wary of the danger that could await in the shadows. The Hunter pauses, sensing a trap, but it is too late. Seizing this opportunity, the man strikes out with his hand and grabs The Hunter.

"Dammit, Eliot, How did you even know I was there? I was doing better this time!" the Hunter whines.

The man chuckles and releases The Hunter, "You weren't tryin' hard enough, Parker. You've gotta learn to blend into your surroundings better when you're tryin' to follow someone as paranoid as me. I spotted you about three blocks from Nate's apartment."

"No you didn't." She pouts and crosses her arms over her chest. "There's no way."

"Yeah, I did. You were sittin' on the bench by the park wearin' a hoodie that was way too big for you."

"But you didn't even act like you saw me! You never turned around, you never looked over your shoulder, and you never even slowed down or sped up. "

"I could feel you watchin' me. I didn't try to look for you 'cause that would've given you a clue that I knew you were there." He grins at her and reaches out to tug on the end of her ponytail. "It's that hair of yours. It stands out in a crowd. I saw it in a reflection of a store window."

She twisted her face into something of a cross between confusion and disgust. He was never really sure when it came to Parker. "So I need to cut my hair off?"

"NO, Parker. That's not what I meant." He shakes his head in disbelief.

"But you just said that's what gave me away." She picks up the end of her ponytail to glare at it as if it got her caught on purpose.

"If you were followin' anyone else your hair wouldn't of mattered, but I know you. So I recognized it."

"Oh, okay. That makes sense." She turns to leave the alley.

Eliot grabs her wrist and pulls her back into the shadows. "Wait. I want to know why you've been followin' me every night."

"Um..." She stalls, kicking at a rock lying in the alley with her toe.

He lets out a low growl to show his impatience. "Parker. Answer me."

"I don't want to sound stupid," she mumbles while still staring at the ground.

This takes Eliot by surprise. He figured Parker wouldn't even think about things like how other people will react to her. He reaches out with his hand and slowly tips her chin up so he can look her in the eye. "You won't sound stupid. Crazy maybe, but not stupid." He grins trying to get the sad look off her face.

Apparently this was the wrong tactic to use. "See! That's what I mean. No one ever takes me seriously. They just assume I don't know what's going on or I won't understand." She jerks away from him and before he can recover and try to talk her down she's gone.

Eliot blinks a few times trying to think through what just happened. Not seeing a good ending to this situation in the near future, he heads home. On his way home he tries to come up with a way to make this up to Parker.

* * *

Once he gets to his house, he tries to cook to calm himself down. He grabs a knife, a cutting board, and a handful of vegetables and gets to chopping. He gets so caught up in his thoughts that while he is fixing his dinner, he cuts himself. Getting upset, he throws all of the food away and decides to go for a run to work off his frustrations. He makes his way into his bedroom and changes into some sweats, a hoodie, and running shoes before he heads out.

He runs for about two miles before his thoughts overtake his calm. His mind is running around in circles. He knows how sensitive Parker can be. Why did he try to make a joke out of the situation when it was glaringly obvious how nervous she was? Why was she nervous anyway? She wasn't nervous because he dragged her into an alley. Now that he thought about it, she seemed more embarrassed than nervous. But that just didn't make sense. She didn't have anything to be embarrassed about, did she? He was obviously missing a big piece of the picture. He would have to figure out what she was so worried about saying in the alley earlier before he could figure this out. He would just have to talk to her tomorrow at Nate's. Yeah, that's what he'd do. He'd apologize about giving her a hard time and ask her what was going on. Then he could figure out why she's been following him around. Having finally worked through the situation, he turned around and headed back to his house.


	2. Chapter 2

AN: Thank you for all of the reviews! I'm slowly working on the rest of the story, so I'll more than likely be updating sporadically. Just to let you guys know. (:

* * *

The next day at Nate's, Eliot tries several times to get Parker by herself to talk to her, but she keeps avoiding him. He tries to talk to her when she's in the kitchen riffling through cereal boxes, but when he walks into the kitchen with the excuse of getting some coffee she drops the cereal (spilling it all over the floor) and goes to talk to Hardison. He tries to talk to her before the rest of the crew makes their way over to the bar to go over their next case, but she suddenly jumps up to look at something out the window. Almost to the end of his rope, Eliot wracks his brain thinking of a way to talk to the thief without drawing the attention of the rest of the team. He really doesn't feel like having an audience when he talks to her.

* * *

After a few more hours of playing cat and mouse with Parker, Eliot is a giant ball of tension. He leaves Nate's in a rush, and doesn't even try to lose the tail that he feels behind him. If she follows him all the way to his house he can finally talk to her and figure out what the hell is going on and why it's bothering him so much. Why does he even care anyway, dammit?

Hell, if he would have just thought this through earlier, he would have realized that all he had to do to talk to Parker on her own would be to leave. She's been following him when he leaves Nate's for weeks.

Still angry, he decides that he's in no mood for detours tonight, so he makes it to his house in record time. When he makes his way into his living room, he leaves the front door open. He knows she's still following him. Her curiosity will get the better of her and she'll come inside. She's never made it all the way to his house before. At least this way, she won't scratch his locks when she picks them.

Not even glancing back, Eliot tosses his keys and phone down on the coffee table and heads out the back door to his garden. He didn't spend much time out there yesterday and there are vegetables that need to be picked.

After a good twenty minutes of digging in the dirt, Eliot is much calmer and a whole lot dirtier. He heads back into his house to clean up and see what havoc the thief has managed to wreak while he was outside.

When he makes it into his living room, Parker is nowhere to be seen, his door is still open, and his phone is beeping at him letting him know that he missed a call while he was outside. Walking over to the coffee table, he picks up the phone and looks at the missed call list. Twelve missed calls from Parker. One every few minutes since he went outside. What the hell? She followed him here, why is she calling? As Eliot debates whether or not to call her back, his phone starts ringing in his hand. Glancing down at the screen, he sees that it is Parker calling, again. He better answer or she's just going to keep calling him.

"Hello, Parker."

"Your door is open."

"I know, Parker, I left it open so you could come inside."

"How did you know I was going to come over? Is that another one of your superpowers?" She sounded like she had just figured out some state secret.

He chuckles quietly to himself. "No, Parker, I thought we went over this yesterday. I know when I'm being followed."

"Oh." He could hear the disappointment in her voice. "But you were so mad I thought there was no way you would notice me."

He huffs an exasperated sigh, "I was mad because-" and then it hits him that she is standing right outside of his door and he's talking to her over the phone. "Dammit ,Parker, just come inside and we can talk face to face."

"Um.. Okay." She steps into his house and shuts the door behind her, all the while still on the phone. She looks at him expectantly. "Now what?"

He shakes his head. "Hang up the phone." He turns toward the kitchen to go make dinner, assuming Parker would follow him. "What do you want for dinner?" When he doesn't get an answer, he glances back over his shoulder. She wasn't there. He sighed. Of course not. He better go find her before she ruins his house.

He finds her exactly where he left her, standing by the door. She is staring at his living room as if she is afraid it is going to reach out and bite her. More than a little confused by the situation, Eliot approaches Parker as if she will bolt if he makes any sudden movements. When he makes it close enough he starts to reach out and tap her on the shoulder, but stops himself. If he were in her situation, someone sneaking up on him and grabbing him would not be pleasant. Parker wouldn't react to it any better than he would. He lowers his hand and tries a different approach.

"Hey," he says quietly, as if talking to a scared animal. "What's the matter, Parker?"

"Your house..." she says so softly he almost doesn't hear it.

Okay. He knew she was crazy, but seriously? What's wrong with his house? He looks around and doesn't see anything out of the ordinary. The living room furniture is what everyone has: a couch, a coffee table, two chairs, and end tables with a lamp on one of them. He has a pretty damn nice fireplace in the corner. Hell, he even has decorations up on the walls since he's been here for over a year and doesn't plan on leaving any time soon. Sure, his living room might be more suited to a house south of the Mason-Dixon line with the hardwood floors, bomber brown leather couch, and rustic decorations, but that shouldn't be any reason for Parker to be acting this way. What was she expecting, a card table, lawn chairs, and milk crates? Give a guy a break. He's not Sophie or anything, but he does have some standards.

Eliot is snapped out of his mental wandering by what Parker says next.

"It's like a_ real_ house," she whispers. "No one else on the team has one of these."


	3. Chapter 3

"It's like a_ real_ house," she whispers. "No one else on the team has one of these."

* * *

"What are you talking about?" Eliot asks, exasperated. "Nate has his apartment, Sophie has a condo, and Hardison has that loft across town that he never really uses anymore."

Parker finally seems to come back to the real world and turns to glare at Eliot. "No. Those don't count. Nate's place isn't Nate's place anymore. It's our office and he just gets to sleep there. Sophie doesn't have a house, she has a giant closet. And Hardison's loft looks like an electronics store threw up all over it. Then there's my place. But this," She pointed to his fireplace as if it was the greatest thing she's ever seen, "it's a _home_. You've got a fireplace! And a big comfy couch!" She ran across the room and took a flying leap onto said comfy couch and wiggled her way down into the cushions. "It's so... normal. Well, except for the knives and stuff you've got hidden all over the place." She pulls a knife out of the couch cushions and sets it on the coffee table.

Taking time to think over what Parker had just pointed out to him, he had to agree with her. He did have the most "normal" house of all of them. He wasn't quite sure how he felt about that. He wasn't the settle down type, was he? Looking around at his house as if he'd never been there before, he had to admit it did look more like a house where a family would live. Definitely not the house of a single guy who was always on the move.

"Huh. I guess you're right, Parker. I didn't notice before."

"Of course I'm right."

She jumps up like she's been electrocuted. "Do you have normal stuff in the rest of your house too, or is it just this room?" She takes off down the hallway before he can answer, leaving him no choice but to follow in her wake and try to keep her from breaking things.

She steps into the first room she comes to, which happens to be the spare bedroom that he has turned into a library/office. He almost runs into her when he follows her through the doorway because she's frozen in place again. This is going to get old. Why is his house causing her such problems? It's just a house, dammit.

"What now?" He asks.

"There are a lot of books in here. And the shelves go all the way to the ceiling. It's like a ladder. Have you read all these books? These shelves and stuff look like they've been added to the room. Did you do that yourself? Do you have a safe hidden in here? Because that would be way too predictable. Can I crack it?"

He was going to have one hell of a headache from having to shift mental gears to keep up with Parker by the time the night was over. "I built the shelves and put them in a while back. When we still had down time between jobs. No, I haven't read all of those books, but I've read most of them. And no, I don't have a safe in here."

"Cool." She turned towards the shelves as if she was going to attempt climbing them. Then what he said sunk in. "Wait, you said you didn't have a safe in here. That means you have a safe somewhere else." And then she was gone again.

He managed to catch up to her right before she went into his bedroom. There was no way he wanted Parker in there. That was _his_ space. It was bad enough she'd managed to make her way into his house and make him second guess every thought he'd had this evening.

"How about you come into the kitchen with me and I'll make you something to eat? You can sit in there and keep me company." He was desperate to keep the thief in a contained area, and that was the best idea he could come up with.

"Depends. What are you going to cook?"

"Well what do you want?"

"I don't know. Surprise me."

Not understanding her logic, he decided to just go with it. It was easier that way. "Okay, let's go."

He led the way back across the living room and into the kitchen. Just walking into the kitchen helped him calm down. This, he could handle. He pointed to a bar stool that Parker could sit on, but she bypassed it and hopped up on the island, swinging her feet back and forth knocking her heels against the wood in a beat Eliot couldn't quite decipher.

Deciding the best way to deal with Parker would be to just pretend she wasn't there, Eliot turned to his pantry to grab the supplies he needed to make spaghetti. It was something he could make quickly and it was also something he knew the thief liked.

Eliot got so immersed in his cooking that he almost didn't notice when a hand reached out to stick a finger in the sauce he was making. He managed to stop the finger inching towards the bubbling pan just in time.

"Parker, that's hot. You'll burn yourself."

"I'm not an idiot, Eliot, I know that. I was going to use a spoon." He looked down and sure enough, there was a spoon in her hand. He could have sworn there wasn't a spoon in her hand just a second ago.

"Well you don't need to try the sauce now, it's done."

"Good. I'm starving. Tracking you across Boston is hard work." She starts opening cabinets until she finds a coffee mug and fork.

Eliot gently takes the coffee mug from her and leads her over to the table in the dining room. "Sit here. I'll bring you a plate." Like he would let her eat out of a coffee mug. That's just crazy. He puts the mug away and dishes up two plates of spaghetti, placing a piece of warm garlic bread in the corner of each plate.

When Eliot made it back to the dining room with the food, Parker was sitting at the table holding her silverware as if she was preparing for battle. He set the food down in front of her and made his way to the other side of the table. He sat down across from her and started eating. When he didn't hear any noise coming from the other side of the table, he looked up. Parker was staring at him. Suddenly feeling self conscious, Eliot wiped his face and looked down at his shirt to see if maybe he had gotten sauce all over himself. After establishing that he hadn't, he looked back at Parker.

"What?" he grumbled. And damn, how many times has he asked that tonight?

Parker ducked her head, mumbled out a "nothing", and began to eat her pasta with gusto.

Unable to let this go on any longer, Eliot sets his fork down with a sigh. He looked longingly at his pasta, which was going to get cold while they had this discussion, and decided to get this over with. "Okay, Parker, I want you to tell me why you've been following me every night. No making excuses."


	4. Chapter 4

Parker looks up from her spaghetti with a few noodles still hanging out of her mouth. Seeing that Eliot is being serious, she sets her silverware down and swallows the food she is chewing. Her face twists into what Eliot likes to call Parker's "thinking" face. He sits patiently, waiting for her to start talking. Just when he thinks he can't possibly wait any more, she finally brakes the silence with a deep sigh.

"Well, at first I was following you just to see if you would notice. I got bored following Hardison and Sophie because they didn't even realize I was there. And I couldn't follow Nate because he doesn't ever go anywhere. When you started dodging me, I was following you to see how far I could get before you lost me. Then I started thinking about why you were dodging me. Did you have something you didn't want me to see? Was it something you were hiding from the whole team? That's when I realized that none of us have been to your house before. Did you have a real house, or were you living in a warehouse like me? Ever since the team went to my warehouse, I've wondered where the rest of you guys lived. I mean, I don't get why living in a warehouse was such a big deal. No one else had a real house. Then yesterday you caught me and I freaked out. I thought you were really mad at me. When I got to the office today, you kept glaring at me across the room so I kept avoiding you so you couldn't yell at me. I didn't want the team to know what I'd been up to. When you got up and left, I figured I should try and stop you to tell you it didn't matter if you were hiding something from the team and I would stop following you. When you came straight here I didn't know what to do. Then I actually looked at your house. It's so nice in here. I've never had a real house before and I was a little jealous. I kinda want to steal your house now." The thief says in a rush, takes a deep breath, then promptly stares down into her plate, hoping that Eliot would understand what she means.

Slightly surprised, not by what the thief had said, but by the fact that she had said so much at once, Eliot realizes that Parker has a good point. He does have something he's been keeping from the team. Himself. He may let slip a few small details every once in a while, some of them actually true, but out of the whole team, he's the most closed off. He shows up for the cons, does what he has to do, and then leaves. Not quite sure how to remedy that without changing his genetic makeup, he turns the idea of having the team in his house over in his mind. He doesn't think he could handle that. Then the last part of what Parker had said sinks into his thick skull. She just wants a real house. Something he's taken for granted his whole life. Sure, he's spent his fair share of time living in barracks, holding cells, and even just out in the wilderness, but he's always had a house to look forward to returning to. Feeling like a jerk for some reason he didn't want to think too long and hard about, he decides he needs to do something about it. In his mind, he knows that Parker is an adult and can take care of herself, but the southern gentleman in him just couldn't handle her not having a real roof over her head. Realizing that Parker is still sitting across the table staring into her plate, fidgeting like she's afraid she's said something wrong, Eliot puts a hold on his mental musings.

"I get it." He says, gearing up to talk to Parker about what in fact he got.

Parker looks up at him as if he were the 20 pounds of crazy in this particular situation. "I just gave a giant explanation to your question and you respond with "I get it."? Really?" She starts mumbling under her breath about stupid muscles and soft, shiny hair affecting his brain.

Eliot cuts her off before she can start in on insulting his wardrobe choices. "Parker, let me finish, dammit. I said that I get it. I'm not mad, and I wasn't mad at you yesterday, or at Nate's either. I was mad with myself for scarin' you away in the alley. I just wanted to know why you were followin' me. I was just frustrated with the situation. Now I know what's goin' on. I think. It's not a big deal. But I do wanna talk to you 'bout the no house thing."

"What do you mean 'the no house thing'?" she says, using those damn finger quotes that Hardison had taught her.

Thinking of the best way to word what he wanted to say, Eliot opens and closes his mouth several times as if to start in on an explanation, but the words just don't come to him. Before he can attempt to get his point across however, Parker starts laughing. And pointing at him.

"You look like a fish!"

Exasperated with the whole situation, Eliot stands up from the table and carries his plate into the kitchen. He begins cleaning up the mess that resulted from making dinner, still thinking about what all he has been through in the last 24 hours. He's decided that to make this whole thing up to Parker, and to ease his mind about the fact she doesn't have a real house (which if he's honest with himself has been bothering him since he went to her warehouse), he should see if she wants to stay in his spare room. It's not like he's using it for anything at the moment, and having Parker here this evening wasn't too bad. While he is hand washing his knives (because there is no way he is putting them in the dishwasher, that's just crazy), Parker comes into the kitchen and hops up on the counter by the sink, dropping her dirty plate into the other side of the sink. She hands him a hand towel to dry his knives with. He takes the towel and nods his thanks.

Parker pokes Eliot in the bicep until he turns his attention from his knives to her. When he looks at her pointedly, she blinks a few times and then pokes him one more time. "You don't really look like a fish. It was just the way you were moving your mouth earlier. See?" She attempts to make herself look like a fish to prove her point. "And I didn't mean it when I said your muscles were stupid. They're very nice muscles." She drops her voice to a whisper. "Sorry, Eliot's muscles." She reaches out, pokes his bicep again, and grins.

Try as he might, Eliot can't hold back his laugh. Parker may be out there, but she still knew just what to say to brighten his day. He reaches out and ruffled her hair. "Come on, I wanna show you somethin'." He pulls her off the counter and motions for her to follow him.

Curious as to what has gotten into Eliot, Parker follows him. He walks across the living room to the hallway she attempted to go down earlier, but instead of going into the last door on the right like she was going to, he goes into the last door on the left. When she walks into the room, she doesn't see why he wanted to show her this room. It's just a bedroom. It reminds her of a few of the hotels the team has stayed at with the generic furniture and plain bedspread. The room is clean and in order, but she can tell that Eliot doesn't use this room. The bed is neatly made, the dresser has a faint layer of dust on it, and there are no decorations up in here like there are in the living room.

"Are you going to show me your safe now?" She asks excitedly, thinking this room would be a great place to have a safe. It would be the last place she would look for one. She starts walking around the room looking for the hidden safe. When she doesn't find a safe anywhere, she looks at Eliot who is just leaning against the doorjamb watching her. "What's so great about this room? There's no safe. There isn't even anything expensive to steal in here." She crosses her arms and looks at him, waiting for Eliot to reveal the reason why he wanted her to see this room.

Eliot chuckles and pushes himself off of the doorjamb. "I'm showin' you this room because I was gonna see if you wanted to stay here, or at least try it out. You said you've never had a real house before, and I figured since I don't use this room I'd let you use it." When she starts to interrupt him, he held up his hand. "I'm not sayin' you have to, I'm just puttin' the offer out there. I haven't really figured out the details yet, but I think it'll work okay."

Parker uncrosses her arms and slowly looks around the room as if seeing it in a whole new light. When she looks back at Eliot, she blurts out, "I don't like the sheets."

Eliot rolls his eyes. "We can change the sheets."

"Okay. Sounds good."

"So I take it you're gonna stay?"

"Well yeah." She walks around the room mumbling to herself about schematics and such. She opens the closet, peers inside, and closes the door. She opens another door and lets out a squeal that Eliot never would have imagined coming from Parker. "There's a bathroom!"

"That bathroom ain't just yours." Eliot says as he walks over to her and points out the door on the other side of the bathroom. "That door opens into the hallway. But since I have a bathroom in my room and no one else is ever really over here, it's basically all yours."

"Okay. I think I should go get my stuff now. I want to get back and try out that shower. It's huge!" She herds him out of the room and closes the door behind her, making a mental list of what she would get tonight and what she would leave at the warehouse. Just in case living with Eliot didn't work out and made her want to do something drastic (like plant C4 under his bed one night). A sudden thought hitting her, Parker turns around and points at Eliot. "Don't go in my room." Then she was gone.

A few seconds after Parker walks out his door, Eliot realizes what he's just done. He's invited Parker to live with him. What in the hell was he thinking? He's never lived with anyone since he moved out of his parent's place. Hell, he never even lived with Aimee, and he was prepared to spend the rest of his life with her. Taking a few moments to let himself adjust to the changes in his future, Eliot takes a long look around his living room. Things were never going to be the same after tonight. He sinks into the couch, leaning his head back onto the cushions and lets out a sigh.


	5. Chapter 5

**AN: So Parker decided that she needed to tell her side of the story as well. I wouldn't let her go back and re-write the first four chapters, but she will have a say from here on out.**

**Enjoy. :)**

* * *

Parker makes the trip from Eliot's house to her warehouse in less than ten minutes, taking a shortcut across a few rooftops to get there. Once she makes it there, she goes over her mental list of what she needs to take with her. She makes sure she takes Bunny, her pillow (it's a feather pillow and very comfy), her bathroom essentials like shampoo and a toothbrush, a few of her practice locks and picks, and then she jams the rest of her duffel full of clothes.

An hour after walking out the front door of Eliot's house (Is it their house now or is it still just Eliot's? She is going to have to ask him about that.), Parker walks back in. She didn't have to go far to find Eliot, however. He was asleep on the couch, sprawled out with his arms across the back of the couch, his head tipped back, and his mouth slightly open. His feet were propped up on the coffee table and there was a hole in the bottom of his left sock. Grinning at the sight of the hitter in such a ridiculous position, Parker pulls out her phone and snaps a few pictures.

Silently crossing the living room so as not to wake Eliot up, Parker makes it to her room (that still sounded so weird to her) and tosses her duffel on the bed after taking out the items she would need for tonight. She strips down while crossing the room and heads straight for the shower.

While Parker is in the shower, she takes time to think over everything that has happened to her in the last day. _She started off the day trying to avoid Eliot, and by the end of the day she's decided to live in his house. Wow. She's not sure quite how that happened. Well, she knows __how_ _it happened, she's just confused as to __why__ it happened. She would have figured Eliot to be the last person out of the group, besides her that is, to want to live with someone. Maybe there is more to Eliot than she thought. She knows he is more than just muscle, but any time he does something that isn't related to being a hitter it catches her off guard. Does she even know anything about him? She's going to have to start paying attention more. _

Turning off the shower, Parker grabs a towel and drys off. She throws on some pajamas and runs a brush through her towel-dried hair. She brushes her teeth and then goes back into "her" room. She unpacks her stuff and tosses her duffel into the closet. Glancing at her phone, Parker sees that it is still fairly early so she heads into the living room to see if Eliot is awake.

* * *

Eliot must have drifted off to sleep because the next thing he remembers is jolting awake when his television (which he did in fact own, he just liked getting a rise out of Hardison) is turned on. Looking around for the cause of the noise, he spots Parker sitting at the other end of the couch in a t-shirt and shorts, with her legs tucked under her and her hair damp from a shower. She is flipping through the channels and finally decides on a show called Dirty Jobs. Parker looks over at him and raises an eyebrow in a questioning manner. Eliot shrugs and Parker nods before setting the remote down on the coffee table. They both turn their attention to the TV and let themselves enjoy the show. The evening progresses in silence, only briefly interrupted when the host of the show, Mike Rowe, is crawling through an air duct and mentions that only crazy people would want to do something like that for a living. Parker lets out an indignant huff, which causes Eliot to chuckle.

When the show is over, Eliot glances over at Parker. She has fallen asleep against the arm of the couch with her head propped up on her arm. Not sure whether he should wake her up or not, Eliot leaves her there and heads to the basement to do his nightly workout. If she's still there when he gets done he'll wake her up. Leaning against the couch like that can't be comfortable.

By the time Eliot comes back upstairs, Parker isn't on the couch. Assuming that she has just gone to her room, Eliot goes into the kitchen to grab a bottle of water. Once he quenches his thirst and has gotten his coffee ready for the morning so all he has to do is walk in and turn on the power, he heads towards his room to shower and go to bed.

He pauses in the hallway, mentally weighing the pros and cons of looking in on Parker to make sure she's in her room and not somewhere else. Knowing Parker, she's probably got booby traps set up already that will burn off his eyebrows or something. Deciding that he needs to at least see if she's in her room, Eliot cracks open the door and sees Parker curled up on the bed snuggled down into the covers, clutching a stuffed rabbit. When she lets out a soft sigh in her sleep, he grins and eases the door shut.

Eliot goes to his room and takes a quick shower. Once he is clean, he dries off, throws on some shorts, and hangs up his used towel. Eliot turns on his alarm clock and then falls into bed, asleep almost instantly.

* * *

Parker wakes up when the sun shines through her window. Glancing at the time, she decides going back to sleep would be pointless. She stretches and hops out of bed. Parker grabs a pair of jeans and a shirt and changes into them. After fixing her hair and putting on her socks and shoes, she heads toward the kitchen. Eliot was sure to have something yummy for breakfast in there. Remembering that Eliot went into what looked like a closet yesterday before he made dinner, Parker walks over to that door and opens it. She was not expecting what she found. It was like opening a door into a tiny grocery store. She steps into the room and after much deliberation, decides to just have an apple for breakfast. Eliot had a lot of apples here. He must have been telling the truth when he said they were his favorite fruit.

When Parker walks back into the kitchen, she spots the coffee maker. Yes! She doesn't have a coffee pot at her place, and Nate doesn't make good coffee at all. The closer she gets to the coffee maker, the more excited she gets. Eliot's coffee pot isn't one of those new fancy ones with too many buttons. His is simple, she can handle this. She opens the top of the coffee maker and sees that Eliot has already put grounds in there for today. Even better. She checks the reservoir and seeing that it is already full of water, hits the start button. Parker grabs a coffee mug out of the cabinet and hops on the counter to wait for the brew to finish while eating her apple. Once she fills her cup, she leans over the cup to inhale the scent of fresh-brewed coffee.


	6. Chapter 6

Eliot awakens to the smell of coffee. Realizing that Parker must have made coffee (please let his kitchen still be intact), he is torn between running to see the damage and staying in bed and praying that he's been dreaming for the last 48 hours. Groaning, he rolls himself out of bed and pads into the kitchen.

Parker is yet again sitting on the counter, but this time she is sipping on a cup of coffee with her eyes closed. She looks as if she has been up for hours, or maybe she's just had a lot of coffee. She must have heard him walk into the room however, because she chirps out a greeting. "Morning!"

Eliot runs a hand through his hair and mumbles a morning in return while making his way towards the coffee pot. Once he fills himself a mug of coffee, he settles himself on one of his bar stools. He turns to Parker to ask her how she slept, but his words get caught in his throat at the look on her face. She is staring at nothing in particular with a glazed over look on her face that normally means she has heard of some priceless gem that is going on display nearby. It's rather disturbing. He swallows loudly and snaps his fingers in front of her face to get her attention. "Hey, Parker, snap out of it."

* * *

Parker however is lost in her own thoughts. _Whoa. This is new. She never thought she had a physical attraction to Eliot. At least not any more of an attraction than every other woman on the planet. The man is pretty much sex personified, but damn. The things she is feeling and the images running through her head can't just be from the delicious coffee she's drinking. When did this happen? Oh right, as soon as she looked up from her coffee to see him walking across the kitchen. This is a sight she could get used to seeing first thing in the morning, that's for sure. Eliot shuffling into the kitchen with a pair of shorts slung low on his hips, his hair unruly from sleeping on it, and his normally fluid movements just slightly sluggish. Oh yeah. This living with people thing has its perks. Oh man, what if he walks around shirtless at other times of the day too? She's seen his muscles plenty of times before, but there is something about the way his body is toned that does something funny to her insides. She wants to just reach out and run her hands down his chest, then up his back so she can trail her fingers down his strong, sexy arms. Wait? Since when does she spend so much time thinking about touching Eliot's muscles? She needs to get a handle on this before she does something crazy. _

Jolting back to reality, Parker shakes her head and meets Eliot's eye for a moment before quickly looking away so he can't use his crazy ability to know what she's thinking against her. "My bad, did you say something?"

* * *

"No, I didn't say anything, I was trying to get you back into the real world. You were drifting off there for a minute. How did you sleep last night?"

After asking his question, Eliot takes his first sip of coffee. He lets his eyes fall closed while he enjoys the feel of the caffeine coursing through his body and waking him up. He lets out a soft groan of appreciation. There was nothing that quite measured up to a good cup of coffee in the morning. When Eliot opens his eyes, Parker is staring at him oddly with her head tilted to the side. "What?"

"Ugh. Noise." She quickly hops off the counter and starts walking past him. "Slept fine. Nate's now."

Turning to see where she was headed, he sees the front door swinging closed behind her. Man that girl was quick. Shrugging off the awkwardness as normal (it is Parker after all), he finishes his coffee and gets ready to go to Nate's place as well.

* * *

Parker leaves the house in such a rush that she forgets to grab her lock picks. It's a good thing she already had her shoes on or she would have forgotten to grab them too. She just had to get out of there. Rushing to Nate's, she doesn't even see where she's going because she's so caught up in her thoughts again.

_Get a grip, Parker! It's just Eliot. You shouldn't be acting this way. He does one thing that turns you on, and suddenly you want to jump his bones. You're a grown woman. You can control yourself. Well, you can control yourself when it comes to your sex life. You need to find something to distract yourself from the man that you are now living with. Sophie! Sophie will know what to do. Yeah! Just talk to Sophie when you get to the office.

* * *

_

Parker bursts into Nate's apartment like a tornado. She scans the room for Sophie, spotting her sitting at the table with Nate, talking over coffee. Ugh. Coffee! Parker rushes to the grifter and starts tugging on her arm. "We need to... uh.. talk. Yeah, talk."

Sophie lets Parker tug her from the room, much to the confusion/amusement of Nate. As Sophie is tugged into the hallway, Nate hakes his head and mumbles something that sounds a lot like "women" under his breath before turning his attention back to his coffee.

When Parker gets Sophie safely out of Nate's hearing range, she starts talking a mile a minute. She is pacing back and forth, her hands alternating between wringing together and flying around as if of their own accord. Sophie doesn't catch everything that the thief is saying, but she does pick out a few words (Eliot, muscles, coffee, noises, touch, nice, HOT) that make everything fall into perspective. As Parker doesn't seem to be anywhere near the end of her monologue, Sophie reaches out and grabs her shoulders to catch her attention. "Parker, honey, calm down. It's going to be alright."

This stops Parker in her tracks. "It will? You promise?"

"Of course. It's alright to be attracted to Eliot. Frankly, I'm surprised this hasn't come up sooner. That man looks scrumptious."

Parker heaves a sigh. "No, you weren't listening to me. I said I don't think I can hold back anymore. Of course I've been attracted to Eliot. I've wanted to do dirty things to the man since the first time I laid eyes on him. Hell, I bet even Hardison's thought about it a time or two. It's just that now I can't even get away from him and talk myself out of it at night because yesterday I moved in with him."

"You what?" Sophie exclaims, genuinely shocked at the revelation.

"Well, I followed him home and he told me I could stay. I even have my own room. It has ugly sheets though."

Sophie couldn't help but chuckle. "I see." She takes a few seconds to think through the information that has been dumped into her lap this. "Okay, Parker, the way I see it you've got two options. You can either try to go on as usual and ignore your attraction to Eliot so you can continue living at his house, or you can sleep with Eliot and mess up what we've got going on here and more than likely wind up living at your own place again."

Sighing yet again, Parker leans against the wall and crosses her arms. "Well, I really like the house. I guess if I try really hard I can control myself." With that, she shoves off of the wall, bounces into the kitchen, and sits on the table by Nate. Sophie composes herself and then follows after the thief.

* * *

The rest of the day progresses as usual. Neither Eliot nor Parker feel the need to announce they are living under the same roof.

Eliot doesn't see it as a big deal and that's a can of worms he sure as hell doesn't want opened.

Parker on the other hand doesn't bring it up because all of her attention is focused on keeping her hands to herself and her mind out of the gutter.


	7. Chapter 7

AN: Sorry about taking so long to update. I've had a bit of trouble getting the words to come out lately.

Enjoy!

* * *

Over the next few weeks, Parker and Eliot develop a loose routine.

Parker gets up first and makes coffee. By the time Eliot makes it to the kitchen for his coffee, she is finishing up her breakfast and quickly heads out the door. Eliot finishes up his coffee at a more sedate pace and then heads to Nate's as well.

In the evenings, hitter and thief do their own thing, but both end up in the kitchen at roughly the same time. They eat the dinner that Eliot fixes and then clean up the kitchen together.

Sometimes they find themselves in the basement together. When this happens, Eliot will help Parker with her self-defense. On rare occasions, she will attempt to show him a few yoga moves to keep him limber.

Spending so much time together has allowed the pair to develop the ability to work together seamlessly. While they haven't noticed the way they no longer have to ask each other questions out loud, but can communicate with just a look, the rest of the team is starting to pick up on it. They should have realized that not letting the team know about a change in dynamic as pivotal as living together would only end badly.

* * *

Three weeks to the day after Parker first stormed into Nate's apartment to talk to Sophie, she does it again. This time though, Parker doesn't realize Hardison is in the apartment. When Parker sees Sophie sitting at the table alone, she starts talking before Sophie can warn her she's not alone.

"I can't do it anymore, Sophie! I lie awake at night and have to stop myself from crossing the hall and crawling into bed with Eliot while he's sleeping. When he shuffles into the kitchen every morning to get his coffee all shirtless and sexy, it's the hottest thing I've _ever_ seen. That is until he actually starts drinking his coffee. He always takes the first sip like it's the best sip of coffee anyone has _EVER_ tasted." She heaves a huge sigh and rubs her hands across her face. "When we're here, it's not that bad. I can distract myself by doing something with Hardison or you. It's almost like before. Then I go home." A look of shock crosses her face. "Oh my God. I'm calling his house home now. You have to help me, Sophie!" Parker falls into a heap on the floor at the edge of the table once she has said her piece, looking completely lost.

Throughout this whole rant, Sophie's eyes have been getting bigger and bigger. While Parker has had her back to the room, Sophie has had a perfect view of the apartment, namely the hacker across the room. Hardison goes from startled when Parker first bursts through the door, to shock as she starts talking and he realizes the thief and hitter were living together, and finally anger seems to take over. His anger continues to grow and build until he lashes out. "You're what?" He directs at Parker, who quickly snaps her head up to see the normally laid-back hacker upset like she's never seen before.

"Um... I'm living with Eliot." Parker whispers, trying not to anger him further.

Hardison throws his hands in the air, "I can't believe this. You and Eliot. I shoulda known. How long have you two been together? You been lying to us all along?"

Sophie jumps up from her seat at the table and advances on Hardison, pointing a finger in his face. "You listen here, mister. There's no reason for you to be cruel like that. If you wouldn't jump to conclusions just because you get your feelings hurt, and use your brain, you would realize that nothing is going on."

"Seriously? Seriously? You're trying to tell me that Parker and Eliot are living in the same house and _nothing_ is going on? Eliot won't even let the rest of us know where his house _is_, but he lets Parker_ live_ there? Eliot, Mr. I-bed-every-woman-I-come-across-that's-even-slightly-attractive, has a woman as gorgeous as Parker living with him and hasn't tried anything? Yeah right."

They continue to yell at each other as Sophie backs Hardison across the room. Parker blocks out the words they are saying, not wanting to hear what they are saying about her and how _wrong _she is.

Not knowing what to do, Parker crawls under the table and hugs her knees. _She hasn't done anything wrong, has she? She is just staying in Eliot's guest room. Sure, she thinks sex with Eliot would be amazing, but she hasn't done anything about it. She's been working really hard not to do anything with him. She's been on her best behavior lately. She hasn't even stolen any of Eliot's things (like his old blue flannel shirt) to keep in her room.

* * *

_

Eliot walks into Nate's to see Parker sitting under the table while Hardison and Sophie are yelling at each other over by the screens. Noticing how Parker's eyes widen when he walks into the room, he melts into the wall so as not to be seen and slowly makes his way to the table and crawls underneath with Parker.

"What's goin' on over there?" He nods towards the screaming match across the room.

"I was talking to Sophie about something," Parker looks down at her shoes and Eliot can almost swear he sees a faint red tint climb to her cheeks. "and I may have let it slip that I've been staying at your place. Hardison overheard and he freaked out. Then Sophie started yelling at him for yelling. It's just been getting worse from there. I don't know what to do to make it stop."

_He knew something like this would happen. It's the whole reason he didn't tell the team about Parker living with him._ Looking over at Parker, Eliot notices that she's starting to get pretty upset. She's picking at the hem of her shirt and beginning to rock, just slightly. He leans over and tugs her into a quick one armed hug before letting her go and grinning. "Don't worry. I'll take care of it."

He crawls out from under the table and heads across the room. "Hey! What in the hell is goin' on here?"

Sophie and Hardison freeze as they register Eliot standing near them, obviously waiting for an answer. They both slowly turn and find the hitter glaring at them with his arms crossed over his chest. When he is sure he has their attention, he asks them again. "I said, what the hell is goin' on here?"

They both blurt out answers at the same time.

"Parker-" Hardison starts.

"Hardison-" Sophie gestures to the hacker.

Deciding that this isn't going to get his answer, Eliot holds up his hand and once again draws silence from the room. "Okay, here's the way this is gonna work. I don't wanna hear excuses. I wanna know what all the screamin' is about. Sophie, you first."

The grifter makes a split second decision to tell the story, but not share Parker's dilemma. "I was sitting at the table when Parker came barreling through the door. She didn't realize Hardison was in the room and started telling me about what it's like living with you these last three weeks. You know, girl talk. Gossip." Hardison snorted. "Hardison overheard what we were talking about and blew a gasket. It obviously upset Parker so I jumped to her defense."

Hardison either doesn't think through what he is about to say, or is just upset enough to not care how what he is about to say will effect everyone in the room. "Of course I freaked. I'm just sittin' over there minding my own business, when Parker blows in here and starts talking about how sexy you are and how she wants to jump your bones every time you walk into a room. How is a man _supposed_ to react to somethin' like that?" He throws his hands in the air and huffs out a sigh.

Eliot takes a moment to pick his jaw up off of the floor and gather his thoughts. When he regains the ability to form coherent words, he attempts to tell Hardison how he's overreacting. "Come on, Hardison, you're makin' a big deal out of nothin'. Parker's been stayin' at my place for almost a month and she's never once showed any signs of wanting to, what did you call it, "jump my bones". You probably just heard somethin' out of context and jumped to conclusions. Besides, there's not a snowball's chance in hell of anything happenin' between me and Parker. This is all just a big misunderstanding. Right, Parker?" Eliot turns to Parker for affirmation, but she isn't there.


	8. Chapter 8

Parker vanishes from Nate's once Eliot starts in on his rant. She's not really upset by what he says, she just needs time to plan. It's not like she's a little girl who doesn't know how to deal with something like this. She decides to go to the zoo. It's the last place anyone will think to look for her, and she can go about pretty much unnoticed.

She wanders throughout the zoo until she comes to the big cat exhibit. It's always been her favorite part of the zoo. The tigers and lions always look so strong and powerful, but at the same time she wants to break into the pens and play with them because they are just so cute. It makes her think that the tough, aloof thing is just an act and they're really just giant kittens. _Hmm. Now that she thinks about it, Eliot is just like these big cats. He's so tough all the time and protects the team with his gruff demeanor, but on occasion the other Eliot shows up. The Eliot that has a soft spot for kids. The Eliot that just can't shake his southern upbringing and always opens doors for her and Sophie. The Eliot that lets her stay at his place and cooks for her. The Eliot that Parker just can't seem to resist_. She settles on a bench and starts to plot. _Not a snowball's chance in hell? Oh, she'll show him. If Eliot thinks he doesn't want her, he's got another thing coming. She may not be able to seduce a mark to save her life without Sophie talking her through it, but this is Eliot. She knows him. She'll figure it out. He'll change his mind. He won't even know what hit him._

Parker wanders out of the zoo with a big grin on her face. It's time to set her plan into motion.

* * *

"Shit." Eliot mutters before turning to leave.

"Hey, man! Where are you going?" Hardison yells after him.

Eliot stops and turns back towards the hacker and grifter. "Where do you think I'm goin', you dumbass? I'm goin' to fix this. Apparently Parker and I haven't exactly been on the same page."

"You can't just storm out of here like that. Besides, it's not like you'll be able to find Parker anyways."

"And why the hell can't I just leave, Hardison?"

"Because we've got to figure this," he waves his hand around in some undiscernible motion, "whatever it is, out."

Once Eliot takes a moment to think over what Hardison has said, he walks over to the table and sits down. "Okay. Fine. Let's get this over with. What exactly do we need to figure out?"

Sophie and Hardison look at each other for a moment before also going to sit at the table. Once all three are seated, Sophie is the first to speak. "Well, first off, I think that Hardison and I need to know the details of why you two are living together. It is kind of odd, don't you think?"

"I don't see why that's important. Parker followed me home one day and I asked her to stay. She gave me this long crazy speech 'bout how I had a real house and she's never had one. I have a spare room. I don't see the big deal." he shrugs his shoulders and waits for a response.

Hardison sputters for a moment while he tries to think of something to say that won't result in him getting his face rearranged by an angry Eliot. "You don't see the big deal? You don't see the big deal? Do you not realize that we've been working together for three years and Sophie, Nate, and I have no idea where you even live? How is it not a big deal?"

Sophie puts a hand on Hardison's arm to stop him before he says something he's going to regret. "Hardison, take a deep breath. You're getting worked up again."

Eliot sets his arms on the table, folding his hands together and looks at the hacker. "Yeah, man. We didn't even know where Parker lived 'til a few months ago. Not my fault you guys are just unconcerned with security. I like my privacy. The only reason Parker found my house is 'cause she followed me home when I left the office for two weeks 'til I got tired of ditchin' her and let her make it all the way to my house."

"But why would she _want_ to follow you home?" Hardison grumbled, "You're not that interesting."

"Don't ask me. It's Parker we're talkin' about. The only answer I got out of her was she was curious. I'm still not sure why she was followin' me. You need to talk to her 'bout this, not me."

"So it doesn't bother you? Having someone live with you? Having Parker live with you?" Sophie asks, watching Eliot closely for his reaction.

Eliot's brow furrows as he thinks about just how little it did bother him having Parker under his roof. _I didn't even think about it before, it's not like it's that big of a deal. It's just Parker. We both do our own thing and stay out of each other's way. Sure, we eat dinner together and stuff, but that's just 'cause there's no way in hell I would ever let that crazy woman into my kitchen. It's just like bein' here at Nate's, but with Parker instead of the whole team. At least Parker doesn't wanna talk all the time like Hardison or Sophie. And she won't empty my liquor cabinet like Nate would. Besides, I don't see why Hardison is so upset that I _don't _want to take advantage of Parker. You think he would be happy about that. Yeah, I really need to find her before she goes back to the house and hides all of my knives or something 'cause she's upset._

"Nope. Doesn't bother me." With that, he gets up from his chair and heads towards the door once again. "Now if you two will excuse me, I have a thief to go find."

When the door closes, Sophie drops her head into her hands. "Uh-oh."

Hardison turns to look at Sophie so fast he might have given himself whiplash. "What do you mean, uh-oh?"

With her head still in her hands, she mumbles out, "Didn't you see it? He just realized that living with Parker wasn't a bad thing. All this time they've been living together, he hasn't even thought about what was happening, but now it's different. Things are going to change around here."


	9. Chapter 9

AN: Yes, it has been eons since I've updated. *hangs head in shame*

I wish I had a decent excuse to use, but really there isn't one.

So if anyone is still reading this story, or even cares about what happens next, here's another chapter.

Enjoy!

* * *

Parker skips going back to Nate's apartment in favor of going straight to Eliot's house. She has more important things to do than go listen to Hardison and Sophie argue about things they have no business arguing over in the first place. Why do they care where she lives? It's not like either one of them offered to let her stay with them. Hell, they didn't even know where she was living for the three years they have been a team until they had to come track her down.

Parker slips through her window and heads towards her closet. Eliot keeps telling her that she should start using the door when she comes home, he even gave her a key, but to her it just makes more sense to enter her room directly instead of having to go through the front door then walk all the way through the house. She crouches down and digs around in the back of her closet, looking for a bag she had hidden earlier.

_Aha! Found it. This bag is going to be the undoing of Eliot. There is no way for her to lose with this plan. The best part of her plan… it's subtle. Deliciously subtle. He won't even know what hit him because he doesn't think subtle is in her arsenal. Well, Eliot is wrong. Hers is a plan best executed slowly, so she better get started. Step one, destroy something Eliot loves._

* * *

Eliot leaves Nate's and spends the afternoon visiting all of the places Parker has been known to haunt.

Not having any luck in finding Parker, Eliot returns to his house.

When Eliot unlocks his door, his instincts go on high alert. There is someone in his house. And from the smell of things, they have started a fire… in the kitchen. Oh God, Parker is going to burn his house down. It has to be Parker, right?

"Parker? You here?" Eliot tentatively calls out as he makes his way to the kitchen.

"In here!" comes a very distinctive voice from, you guessed it, Eliot's prized kitchen.

Anticipating the worst, Eliot rounds the corner to what can only be described as a war zone. There is white dusting of flour all over everything. Food is littering the floor like spent grenades. Pots and pans are piled up in the sink and one of them appears to be smoking. Smacking a hand against his forehead, Eliot catches sight of something that vaguely resembles arterial spray on the ceiling. How in the hell something like tomato sauce got on the ceiling is anybody's guess. To top it all off, standing in the middle of the kitchen looking like she has just endured WWIII is Parker, holding a spatula and grinning from ear to ear.

With a sigh of trepidation, Eliot asks Parker about why his kitchen is suddenly her playground, "Parker, what's goin' on here?"

"I'm cooking!" she replies, "I realized that you always make dinner. I was going to surprise you, but your kitchen doesn't work right." She stops to glare at the pile of dishes in the sink as if they personally insulted her. "Everything is out to get me."

Not quite sure why Parker was attempting to make dinner, but finding that it was rather nice to actually know where the little thief was at and that she hadn't destroyed his house (unless you count the destruction of his kitchen) in a fit of anger, Eliot breathed a sigh of relief. He was a little worried that he would make it home to find the place burnt to the ground, or at least that Parker had vacated the premises.

Eliot shakes his head and looks around the kitchen a little more closely, surprised to find that he wasn't upset. He was actually… amused? Where is that coming from?

"I don't think it's the kitchen that's got a problem here. How about we get this cleaned up, and we'll go out for dinner tonight? I don't think either of us is gonna be up for cookin' by the time we're finished with this mess."

"Okay. Sounds like a plan to me," Parker nods, pulls a broom out of nowhere and hands it to Eliot. "You get the floors, I'll get the ceiling."

Not one to argue with logic, Eliot starts sweeping. The pair fall into the easy pattern that they have developed from all of the time they spend working together, making even the chore of cleaning look something more like a delicately choreographed dance. Without words, they seem to know what the other needs and smoothly hand cleaning supplies back and forth all the while never stopping in their designated chores.

Roughly two hours later, Eliot places the last of his pans back in the cabinet as Parker hops onto the counter in what has become her spot. The kitchen is clean, but the hitter and thief look a little worse for wear. They have both acquired a dusting of flour and look as if they have been in a middle school food fight.

Parker leans back against the wall and lets out a sigh.

Turning towards the sound, Eliot raises an inquisitive eyebrow. "What?"

"I don't want to go out for dinner. I'm too tired. Can't we just order in instead?"

"Whatever. That's fine with me. What do you want?"

"I was thinking… pizza."

"That works. You call it in, I'm gonna go take a shower real quick." Eliot turns and starts down the hallway towards his room while unbuttoning his shirt.

While taking advantage of the opportunity to watch Eliot rid himself of his button down leaving him in just a muscle shirt, Parker calls out, "You want the usual order?"

"Sure." Eliot yells from his room.

* * *

After calling in the Pizza, Parker hops down from the counter and heads to take a shower of her own. Seducing Eliot is hard work, and she needs to clean up before she can move on to step two.

While in the shower, Parker smiles to herself and checks step one off of her mental list. Since she has managed to destroy something Eliot obviously cares about without bringing his wrath down on her, she feels confident in moving on to the next part of her plan. _This is where the subtle part comes in. She wants Eliot to take an interest in her, but she doesn't want to change her actions that he notices something is off. Precision. That's the name of the game._


End file.
